Brief Overview

Students will work in partners to examine and discuss the primary source probate record inventory of goods belonging to Sarah Green (d. 1757) to improve comprehension of life in Colonial Virginia. After sharing with others, students will answer questions predicting what they think Sarah Green’s life was like. Students will listen to (or read a transcript from) an interview with a colonial historian and compare their predictions with the historian’s conclusions.

Brief Historical Background

By the eighteenth century, the colony of Virginia had grown into a society with distinctions between race, class, and gender. Like most southern colonies, Virginia had a slave-based, planter-dominated society. Even though only a relative few, about five percent, of southern white landowners were planters (with 20-plus slaves), they were the role models for other aspiring white men. Influenced by English law, men were the sole possessors of the family’s wealth, but women could be the beneficiaries of shared wealth upon the death of their husbands. Legal documents, such as tax records or probate inventories, often provide our only information about the status of a woman and the lifestyles of ordinary people during the colonial and early national periods. Such listings of household possessions, from a time when household goods were not widely mass produced, can illuminate a fair amount about a person’s or a family's routines, rituals, and social relations, as well as about a region's economy and its connections to larger markets.

Objectives

The students will:

Review a primary source document (Sarah Green, York County Wills and Inventories #20, 1745-1759, pp. 512-513) and discuss, predict, and infer information about the listed items.

Make conclusions based on their findings about Sarah Green and about life in colonial Virginia.

Compare their predictions and conclusions with those of a colonial historian.

Standards of Learning

Skills:

VS.1 The student will develop skills for historical and geographical analysis including the ability to

identify and interpret artifacts and primary and secondary source documents to understand events in history;

determine cause and effect relationships;

draw conclusions and make generalizations;

evaluate and discuss issues orally and in writing.

Content:

VS.4 The student will demonstrate knowledge of life in the Virginia colony by

explaining the importance of agriculture and its influence on the institution of slavery;

Strategies

Day One

Hook (8-10 minutes)

(Option 1): Explain to students that today the lesson involves the things we can learn about people based on their possessions—the things they own—“What People’s Stuff Can Tell You” (this can be made into a sign or written as the day’s objective). Ask students to “brainstorm.” Give students two minutes to write down everything they own—their stuff. At the end of two minutes ask them to partner with someone (Clock Buddies, elbow partners, across the table, etc.) and share their lists. As they look at the other person’s list they should think about what the list tells them about the person; what questions they would have based on the list; and how the knowledge they have about the person already helps them understand the list. Give students two-three minutes to study their partner’s list. At the end of the time, discuss what they learned, questions, and background.

(Option 2)If available, bring in several items on the inventory list that would not be familiar to all students: pestle and mortar, Dutch Oven, Damask napkins, dog irons (andirons), etc. Pass them around, asking students to think about what the objects might have been used for 250 years ago. Share ideas in an open discussion. Explain to students that today the lesson involves the things we can learn about people based on their possessions—the things they own—“What People’s Stuff Can Tell You” (this can be made into a sign or written as the day’s objective). Ask what the items you passed around might tell them about the person who owned the them.

1. Inventory Analysis (10-12 minutes)

Distribute the original inventory copy (or project it from here) and a copy of the transcript.

Review the definition of a "primary source."

Explain they are to work with their partner to study the lists and note what they notice (or what the list tells them about the person) and questions they have.

Review SOME unusual/new vocabulary written on board, chart paper, or projected on SmartBoard. (Explain you want them to try to figure out some of the words; also some words are unknown. Include some definitions from the Oxford English Dictionary, particularly for words that have changed meaning over the years.)

Explain that students are now going to “do history” (working on their own). Historians take primary source information like this and make conclusions about people or a time in history.

On back of worksheet, draw a line down the middle.

Write “Actual” on the first column and “Conclusions” on the second.

In the first column write what you know about Sarah Green. Draw conclusions from the information and write them in the second column. Use the information to make educated guesses when you can. (Model example: From the list I know she had slaves, so I’ll write “She had slaves.”)

Explain that tomorrow we will hear from someone else who “does history”.

Day Two

Hook (3-5 minutes)

(Option 1): Remind students that the lesson the day before, “What People’s Stuff Can Tell You,” started with students making lists of “stuff” they own and then sharing with partners. Review some of the things partners learned by looking at another student’s list. (Call on some who did not share on Day One)

(Option 2): Display a written list of “Stuff I Own.” It can be your stuff, your spouse’s stuff, or a list from someone in the class. Brainstorm what the list tells you about the person. Refer to Day One Activity Questions; explain students can use the information to make conclusions or inferences.

Give the day’s objective: to compare their conclusions about Sarah Green with that of a professional historian.

Differentiation: Students may draw pictures to represent their items and explain to you one-on-one.

3. Extension (10-15 minutes)

(Option 1): Distribute the floor plan of Gunston Hall and explain, reviewing the importance of George Mason. Use the large entry as the “hall.” Students label where they would find some items from Sarah Green'’ inventory if she lived there.